Egg Question or Rather Questions

[3sacrowd]

Hi,

My first chicken has laid four eggs. She skipped yesterday and it looks like she is skipping today. Is that normal? On a similar note, we found an egg in the coop, not in the same place Raspberry was laying eggs, that is a much lighter shade of brown. Could this be a second layer or is Raspberry just making her eggs a lighter color all of a sudden. The first four eggs are all almost the exact shade of brown. This one is very much lighter. Make sense or am I just babbling?

 

[sharol]

I have 6 laying hens, and each one lays a unique shade. Lily lays green eggs, Scout (golden campine) lays white. The 2 Delawares both lay medium brown eggs, but Lucy's has speckles (Lucy in the nest with speckles -- to the tune of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds), Vic (GLW) lays almost pink eggs, and Lisbeth the Welsumer lays dark brown when she isn't molting (I really am missing her dark eggs). I'd say you might have a second layer.

My girls mostly lay about 4-5 eggs a day when everyone is laying. The Campine lays almost every day as do the Dels, but the others will lay 3-5 a week. The Campine actually laid 2 one day -- one really early and one just before I shut up the coop at 8 (it was still quite warm). It is rare for a chicken to lay absolutely every day. My girls started laying in November and in February, Angel (the other Del) laid 26 eggs in 28 days. Amazing.

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[3sacrowd]

Thank you, sharol. I just wasn't really sure what to expect. This is a whole new ballgame for us. We are loving it, though. We love our chickens and we love that they are outside. We have been become silly chicken people complete with a webcam and a wreath on the run door.

Let the Easter Egg hunt begin!

 

[3sacrowd]

PS... Lucy in the nest with Speckles. That's pretty darn funny. Guess what's going through my mind now. Har.

 

[3sacrowd]

So just curious, the hen who started laying hasn't laid for three days. So four days on and three days off - is this getting started laying behavior?

Anyone?

 

[ChicKat]

It probably is 'getting started behavior'. Hens are pretty amazing at making eggs.

I suspect that your Raspberry will become a great supplier of eggs for your family. I have a golden comet that laid an egg for 106-consecutive days. Lots of them were in this awful heat. Then she took a day off and started again.

I have noticed that mine are eating less due to the heat and therefore they are going to be laying less. Heat may be a factor that is influencing your flock..

 

[sharol]

My first egg came from my Campine and it took her another week to produce the 2nd one. After a couple of weeks of hit and miss, she settled in and lays almost every day - 5-6 a week.

 

[Kathleen1115]

My first five have been laying since January and they're all different but very regular each in their own way. One of the most enjoyable things has been to watch them settle into a pattern and to figure out who is doing what. We've kept an egg log since they started and you really can start to see what that pattern is like. So enjoy this time - It's really exciting!

 

[3sacrowd]

Thanks, everyone. I'm sure it's not heat... Unless, lack of heat is an issue. We are in Seattle and summer has yet to make an appearance. The high today is 72 and it's been cold and gray for most of the "summer." June, July, & August have been renamed to Junuary, Julebruary, and Fogust. I'm going to search out sun on my own next week just for the Vitamin D.

This morning I found an egg that is a different color of brown from the first two egg colors. Really light and weighed less than any egg we have gotten so far. It's super exciting to see the girls produce! We have a webcam and need to set it to record for a few hours for a few days so we can see who is laying what and when.

So out of our six chickens, it looks like we have three layers in the midst... The brown egg layers. We are waiting on our white egg layer, our blue or green egg layer, and our chocolate brown egg layer.

Have a great day!

 

[ChicKat]

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BTW I love that you will know who is laying by the egg color for your white, dark brown, blue or green and your browns. that is such good planning!!!
Good luck.